Detective – BBC TV 1964-69

Introduction

At this years Bodies From The Library event, to be held on 1st June 2024, I have been honoured by being invited to give a presentation on Detective (BBC TV 1964-1969). On the day I will be discussing the series and also showing as many clips as time will allow. To whet everyone’s appetite, I have prepared this article. If you are attending, please feel free to contact me with your suggestions of which episodes you’d like to see a clip of, always remembering that some are unfortunately missing from the archives, the full details of which are related below.

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Previously on this blog I have published two articles about early TV adaptations of Golden Age mysteries, one covering the years 1923-1958 and the second one the years 1959-1966. Another article will hopefully be coming soon, but in the meantime I wanted to cover in detail what is unquestionably the most important programme in this category – at least those produced before the 1970s – the BBC anthology series Detective (1964-1969).

Detective ran for 45 episodes over three series and utilised a wide range of source material over that time, from the very first modern detective, Poe’s Auguste Dupin, to much more recent creations, such as Gil North’s Sergeant Cluff and Francis Didelot’s Commissaire Oreste Bignon, who had first appeared in 1960 and 1956 respectively. But it also featured a large number of classic Golden Age sleuths, including R. Austin Freeman’s Dr John Thorndyke, Anthony Berkeley’s Roger Sheringham, Edmund Crispin’s Gervase Fen and John Dickson Carr’s Sir Henry Merrivale. Indeed, several of the detectives featured have never reappeared in a television adaptation, making their appearance in the series even more significant to the Golden Age devotee. It also saw the appearance of some lesser known – though no less interesting – sleuths, for example R. C. Woodthorpe’s Sir Luke Frinsby, Ethel Lina White’s Miss Pye and Edgar Jepson and Robert Eustace’s Ruth Kelstern.

When it first appeared in 1964 this anthology series followed a format first used by ABC Television for their science fiction series Out Of This World in 1962, with individual stories each week being introduced by a regular host. For ABC Television Boris Karloff had acted as host and the BBC, searching for one or more replacements for the highly successful Maigret, which had run for four seasons, used Rupert Davies in character as the French detective to briefly introduce the detective and story for that week. The following year (1965) the BBC, having poached the producer of the ABC series, Irene Shubik, produced an anthology science-fiction programme of their own called Out Of The Unknown, which eventually ran for four series.

Detective was successful and sold abroad, including to Australia. Three stories were chosen from the first season to be expanded into full series – Cluff, Thorndyke and Sherlock Holmes. I have added details for those programmes as well below.

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Detective – Series One (duration 18 x 50 mins)

March 30th to July 27th 1964 at 21.25 on BBC Television

The first series was produced by David Goddard with Max Marquis, John Gould and Anthony Read acting as Script Editors.

Archive Status: Six episodes are currently missing from the archives from the original eighteen. Full details are listed in the synopses below.

note: Detective is not alone among TV series from this time to have a significant number of episodes missing from the archives. Of 432 episodes of Dixon Of Dock Green produced over 21 years, only 24 still exist in full. Almost 100 early episodes of Doctor Who are also missing, though soundtracks of all episodes exist thanks to viewers taping them at home. And not a single episode of the original 147 of the series United!, which followed the fortunes of a fictional football club and was broadcast between 1965-1967, still exists. Therefore Detective‘s survival rate of over 50％ is actually better than many programmes of the era.

The titles for series one can be viewed here.

Episodes

1. Professor Gervase Fen – The Moving Toyshop
2. Sgt Cluff – The Drawing
3. Philip Trent – Trent’s Last Case
4. Nigel Strangeways – End Of Chapter
5. Sir Henry Merrivale – The Judas Window
6. Martin Cotterell – Dishonoured Bones
7. Inspector Rason – The Man Who Murdered In Public
8. Sherlock Holmes – The Speckled Band
9. Bob Race – The Night Of The Horns
10. Det. Const. Bradfield – Subject! Murder
11. D. C. I. Alleyn – Death In Ecstacy
12. Sir John Appleby – A Connoisseur’s Case
13. Jasper Shrig – The Loring Mystery
14. Eve Gill – The Hungry Spider
15. Doctor Thorndyke – The Case Of Oscar Brodski
16. Nicky Mahoun – The Speaking Eye
17. Jane & Dagobert Brown – Death Of A Fellow Traveller
18. Father Brown – The Quick One

Detailed Episode Information

Edmund Crispin – Professor Gervase Fen in The Moving Toyshop

Adapted by John Hopkins

Starring: Richard Wordsworth as Gervase Fen, John Wood as Richard Cadogan, Graham Crowden as Dr Havering, Suzan Farmer as Sally Carstairs and Philip Latham as George Sharman

The series debuted with Edmund Crispin’s The Moving Toyshop, the only TV adaptation ever produced in the UK of a Gervase Fen mystery.

A poet finds a body in a toyshop. But when he returns with the police next morning, the body has disappeared… and so has the toyshop.

Radio Times

Richard Wordsworth (Gervase Fen)

Archive Status: Missing

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Gil North – Sgt Caleb Cluff in The Drawing

Written by Gil North

Starring: Leslie Sands as Sgt Caleb Cluff, Derek Benfield as Dr Hamm, John Rolfe as Const. Barker, Polly Murch as Miss Hewson, Doel Luscombe as Insp. Mole and Allan McClelland as Whitaker

One of a small number of authors who wrote their own scripts for the series, Gil North’s Sgt Caleb Cluff, who first appeared in book form in 1960 was popular enough to convince the BBC to commission a full series later that year (see below). This was due in no small part to Leslie Sands excellent portrayal of the title character. In this episode Doel Luscombe became the first of three actors to play Inspector Mole, Cluff’s superior officer.

Archive Status – Missing

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E. C. Bentley – Philip Trent in Trent’s Last Case

Dramatised by John Gould and Max Marquis

Starring: Michael Gwynn as Philip Trent, Penelope Horner as Mabel Manderson, Peter Williams as Sigsbee Manderson, Ross Parker as Insp. Murch and Lewis Wilson as Dr Stock

A pair of damaged shoes helped Philip Trent to solve the mystery of a tycoon’s death, but the solution revealed astounding facts that even he had not suspected.

Radio Times

Whilst a classic and extremely influential novel of early golden age crime fiction, the choice to adapt this story might be considered odd given it was just over 10 years since the film version starring Orson Welles.

Michael Gwynn – Philip Trent

Archive Status – Missing

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Nicholas Blake – Nigel Strangeways in End Of Chapter

Adapted by Gerald Kelsey

Starring: Glyn Houston as Nigel Strangeways, Geoffrey Bayldon as Stephen Protheroe, Hamilton Dyce as Insp. Wright, Joan Sanderson as Mrs Blayne and Peggy Ann Wood as Miss Waters

Glyn Houston (1925-2019), who later appeared as Mervyn Bunter in three of the five series of Lord Peter Wimsey in the 1970’s, here takes the starring role as Nigel Strangeways in this story written under Cecil Day-Lewis’ Nicholas Blake pseudonym. A second Strangeways episode The Beast Must Die was adapted in series two, this time with Bernard Horsfall in the leading role. This is the earliest surviving episode from the series.

Glyn Houston – Nigel Strangeways

Archive Status – Exists on 16mm Film Telerecording

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John Dickson Carr – Sir Henry Merrivale in The Judas Window

Adapted by Dick Sharples

Starring: David Horne as Sir Henry Merrivale, Peter Madden as Avory Hume, Christopher Guinee as Jimmy Answell, Neil Wilson as Insp. Mottram, Llewellyn Rees as Sir Walter Storm and Donald Eccles as Judge Rankin

David Horne (1898-1970) had amassed over 30 years experience in film when he became the first actor to play Sir Henry Merrivale, central character in 22 mysteries by Carr under the Carter Dickson pseudonym. A classic locked room mystery sees Merrivale defend a man found drugged in a locked room along with a dead body.

A second Merrivale story And So To Murder was adapted in series three, this time with Martin Wyldeck in the starring role. Unfortunately both are currently missing from the archives.

David Horne – Sir Henry Merrivale

Archive Status – Missing

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John Trench – Martin Cotterell in Dishonoured Bones

Adapted by David Goddard

Starring: Alan Dobie as Martin Cotterell, Judi Dench as Charlotte Revel, Francis Matthews as Charles Garnish, Peter Gill as Henry Revel, Patricia English as Isobel Vitrey and Aubrey Morris as John Rose

Alan Dobie, probably best known for his portrayal of Victorian detective Inspector Cribb in the 1980s Granada TV series, starred in this episode adapted from one of the three mysteries featuring archaeologist Cotterell. It featured several guest stars who went on to become household names, including Dame Judi Dench and Francis Matthews, best know as Paul Temple in the highly successful BBC Television series.

Alan Dobie – Martin Catterell

Archive Status – Exists on 16mm Film Telerecording

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Roy Vickers – Inspector Rason in The Man Who Murdered In Public

Adapted by Anthony Read

Starring: Michael Hordern as Insp. Rason, Donald Churchill as George Carshaw, June Barry as Polly Flinders, Brian Hayes as The Coroner and Grace Arnold as Lady Pengrove

The first of two episode featuring Inspector Rason of The Department Of Dead Ends, creation of Roy Vickers. Rason investigates a husband who has been unlucky enough to lose three wives to cases of drowning…a story reminiscent of the George Joseph Smith murders.

Michael Hordern – Inspector Rason

Archive Status – Missing

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Arthur Conan Doyle – Sherlock Holmes in The Speckled Band

Adapted by Giles Cooper

Starring: Douglas Wilmer as Sherlock Holmes, Nigel Stock as Dr Watson, Felix Felton as Sir Grimsby Roylott, Liane Aukin as Helen Stoner, Marion Diamond as Julia Stoner and Donald Douglas as Percy Armitage

In retrospect it might seem strange that the BBC had waited 13 years since the 1951 series starring Alan Wheatley to bring Sherlock Holmes back to the small screen. However Detective provided the opportunity to try out a new production without committing to the cost of a full series. Fortunately, the episode received a positive response and so a further 12 episodes were commissioned and began broadcasting in early 1965 (see below).

Archive status – Exists on 16mm Film Telerecording

note: Included as part of the BFI Sherlock Holmes boxset but with the original titles replaced to match those of the later episodes. This version was probably prepared so the series could be sold overseas with this episode included.

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Douglas Sanderson – Bob Race in The Night Of The Horns

Adapted by Terence Dudley

Starring: Frank Lieberman as Bob Race, Barbara Shelley as Eve Race, Martin Wyldeck as Sam Alford, Lew Luton as Tony Fontaine, Terence Holland as Jordan and Sally Lahee as Mrs Fontaine

For the first time the series ventures to the USA for a story featuring attorney / detective Bob Race, creation of Douglas Sanderson. Born in 1920, he had emigrated to Canada after the 2nd world war and was influenced by Micky Spillane. Published as recently as 1961, the Penguin edition proclaimed this ‘A Man’s Struggle With Humiliation‘

Night Of The Horns

Archive Status: Exists on 16mm Film Telerecording

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Clifford Witting – Det. Const. Bradfield in Subject! Murder

Written by Clifford Witting

Starring: Mark Eden as Det. Const. Bradfield, Basil Dignam as Det. Insp. Charlton, Veronica Strong as Fay Gilbert, Wilfred Downing as Gunner Fieldhouse and Anthony Woodruff as Major Mellis

Like Gil North before him, Clifford Witting wrote the screenplay for this episode himself. Set in an anti-aircraft post during wartime it deals with the murder of the sadistic tyrant Sgt Major Yule. Mark Eden as usual gives an excellent performance, just weeks after appearing as Marco Polo in Dr Who.

Witting adapted the Father Brown story A Quick One later in the series and went on to write some adaptations for the full series of Sherlock Holmes which was piloted two weeks previously.

Mark Eden and Basil Dignam

Archive Status – Exists on 16mm Film Telerecording

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Ngaio Marsh – D. C. I. Alleyn in Death In Ecstacy

Dramatised by John Gould and Anthony Read

Starring: Geoffrey Keen as Chief Insp. Alleyn, Nigel Hawthorne as Temple Gatekeeper, Keith Barron as Nigel Bathgate, Joss Ackland as Jasper Garnette, Roger Delgardo as de Revigne, Brian Cant as Det. Sgt Bailey and Richard Hurndall as Mr Rattisbone

The first adaptation of a Ngaio Marsh Inspector Alleyn mystery, this episode features an extraordinary number of notable guest stars, including future Play Away star Brian Cant, the original Master from Dr Who Roger Delgardo and Nigel Hawthorne of Yes, Minister fame.

Geoffrey Keen – Det. Chief Insp. Alleyn

Archive Status – Exists on 16mm Film Telerecording

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Michael Innes – Sir John Appleby in A Connoisseur’s Case

Adapted by Elwyn Jones

Starring: Dennis Price as Sir John Appleby, Ann Castle as Lady Judith Appleby, Ronald Leigh-Hunt as Bertram Coulson, Benjamin Whitrow as Peter Binns, Richard Bird as Seth Crabtree and Helen Lindsay as Edith Coulson

The eighteenth mystery to feature Sir John Appleby had only been published two years previously. When they find the dead body of a man in a canal Sir John and his wife investigate the possible link between the victim, known as a poacher and odd-job man, and the people at the local manor house.

The Applebys

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Jeffery Farnol – Jasper Shrig in The Loring Mystery

Adapted by Max Marquis

Starring: Patrick Troughton as Jasper Shrig, David Burke as David Loring, Gerald Cross as Sir Nevil Loring, David Daker as Thomas Yaxley, Katy Wild as Anticlea and Hilary Mason as Belinda

Patrick Troughton gives an excellent performance as Jasper Shrig, Bow Steet Runner. Eccentric and unorthodox he might be but Shrig is still an accomplished investigator, here on the trial of a Baronet who has stolen the family fortune.

Patrick Troughton as Jasper Shrig

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Selwyn Jepson – Eve Gill in The Hungry Spider

Adapted by Jan Read

Starring: Jane Merrow as Eve Gill, Peter Barkworth as Det. Insp. Christopher Smith, Esmond Knight as Commodore Gill, Jack Watson as Charlie and Barbara Couper as Mrs Forsythe

The first of two adaptations featuring Selwyn Jepson’s Eve Gill, a young sleuth who frequently has to deal with problems caused by her liquor-smuggling father. Gill appeared in six mysteries penned by the prolific Jepson, son of author Edgar. When she returned in series two Gill was portrayed by Penelope Horner.

Jane Merrow as Eve Gill

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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R. Austin Freeman – Dr John Thorndyke in The Case Of Oscar Brodski

Adapted by Allan Prior

Starring: Peter Copley as Dr John Thorndyke, Gerald Sim as Dr Jervis, Warren Mitchell as Boscovitch, George Benson as Silas Hickler, Bernard Goldman as Oscar Brodski and Meadows White as Sgt Dickens

An adaptation of the very first inverted detective story written by Freeman, who invented the formula used to such success later by programmes like Columbo. The programme was successful, in no small part because of Peter Copley’s performance as Dr Thorndyke, and this prompted the BBC to commission a series which followed later that year. Gerald Sim was not available for the series and so was replaced with Paul Williamson (see below)

A short extract featuring Dr Thorndyke examining the body can be viewed here

Radio Times

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Clark Smith – Nicky Mahoun in The Speaking Eye

Adapted by John Maynard

Starring: Frederick Jaeger as Nicky Mahoun, Donald McKillop as Hoveden, Penny Whittam as Lily, George Cross as Vescey, Edmond Warwick as Momstead and James Cairncross as Mellent

Nick Mahoun, accountant / detective travels to a Glasgow to audit an oil company prior to a takeover. What he discovers is widespread fraud and somebody willing to commit murder to keep it quiet. Mahoun featured in all three novels written by Clark Smith, himself a Glaswegian and accountant.

Frederick Jaeger – Nicky Mahoun

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Delano Ames – Jane & Dagobert Brown – Death Of A Fellow Traveller

Adapted by Pat Dunlop

Starring: Joan Reynolds as Jane Brown, Leslie Randall as Dagobert Brown, Howard Pays as Patrick Blythe, Edwin Brown as Fred Cox, Gwen Cherrel as Honey Penfield and Richard Owens as Edgar Bray

Husband and wife team Leslie Randall and Joan Reynolds had already appeared together in Joan and Leslie, the first home-grown sitcom on the newly launched commercial channel ITV in 1955. Here they again played a husband and wife team as Delano Ames’ Jane and Dagobert Brown, investigating the strange appearance of a limping man they had previously seen in London when they are holidaying in a Cornish village.

Think of a story about a limping man. Mix in a murder, a few spies, a little hate. It’s a good story – but what does one do when, suddenly, hideously, it all comes true?

Radio Times

Leslie Randall as Dagobert Brown

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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G.K. Chesterton – Father Brown in The Quick One

Adapted by Clifford Witting

Starring: Mervyn Johns as Father Brown, Victor Brooks as Det. Insp. Greenwood, William Kendall as John Raggley, John Baskcombe as Henry Jukes and Margaret Burton as Kath

The first British adaptation of one of Chesterton’s Father Brown stories, this starred Mervyn Johns, veteran of the stage and numerous films, including playing Bob Cratchit opposite Alistair Sim’s Scrooge (1951). Here he investigates the case of a man poisoned by his favourite cherry brandy tipple. There are no shortage of suspects – but Father Brown is seeking the man whom nobody saw.

Mervyn Johns – Father Brown

Archive Status – Missing

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August 3rd to September 7th at 20.20 on BBC Television

Gil North – Cluff Season One (duration 6 x 50 mins)

Produced by Terence Dudley

Scripts by Gil North

Starring: Leslie Sands as Sgt Caleb Cluff, Eric Barker as Insp. Mole, John Rolfe as Det. Const. Barker and John McKelvey as P. C. Bullock

Episodes:

1. The Vagrant
2. The Amorous Builder
3. The Screeching Cat
4. The Widow
5. The Daughter-In-Law
6. The Manufacturer’s Wife

Notable Guest Stars: Ronald Lacey, Stephanie Bidmead, Rodney Bewes, Basil Dignam, James Bolam and Renny Lister

Front Cover of Radio Times promoting Cluff

The first of the three series spun off from Detective to make it’s debut, Cluff proved very popular, not least because of the excellent portrayal of the lead character by Leslie Sands, an experienced stage and television actor. The series was set in the fictional Yorkshire dales village Gunnershaw. Born and bred in the farming community, Cluff used his intimate knowledge of village life to solve crimes, much to the disgust of Inspector Mole (Eric Barker and later Michael Bates in series two), an outsider who preferred order and paperwork.

Unusually for a television series, all the scripts were written by Gil North himself rather than being adaptations of the books by other writers. The programme was successful enough for a second series of 13 episodes to be commissioned the following year. The series was repeated from 3rd October 1965.

Archive Status: Missing

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October 3rd to November 7th at 21.35 on BBC Television

R. Austin Freeman – Thorndyke (duration 6 x 50 mins)

Adapted by C. E. Webber, Alan Prior and Robert Banks Stewart

Produced by John Robins

Starring: Peter Copley as Dr John Thorndyke, Paul Williamson as Dr Jervis, Patrick Newell as Polton and Glyn Owen as Supt Morton

Episodes:

1. The Old Lag
2. A Case Of Premeditation
3. The Mysterious Visitor
4. The Case Of Phillys Annesley (adapted from Phyllis Annesley’s Peril)
5. Percival Bland’s Brother (adapted from Percival Bland’s Proxy)
6. The Puzzle Lock

Notable Guest Stars: Patrick Troughton, George A Cooper, John Le Mesurier, Ronald Leigh-Hunt, Jack May, Stephanie Bidmead and Wanda Ventham

George A. Cooper (l) and Peter Copley (r) as Pratt and Dr Thorndyke – A Case Of Premeditation

The second series to be spun off from Detective, this saw Peter Copley return as the expert on Medical Jurisprudence. Gerald Sim did not return as Dr Jervis for the series and so was replaced with Paul Williamson. Thorndyke’s regular police associate Supt Miller was renamed Supt Morton for the two episodes in which he appeared. The series sold abroad, including to Australia in the late 1960’s.

The titles for the series, which are regarded as extremely creative, can be viewed here

Archive Status – Missing

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1965

February 20th to May 8th at 20.35 on BBC Television

Arthur Conan Doyle – Sherlock Holmes (duration 12 x 50 mins)

Dramatised by Giles Cooper, Vincent Tilsley, Anthony Read, Clifford Witting and Jan Read

Produced by David Goddard

Starring: Douglas Wilmer as Sherlock Holmes, Nigel Stock as Dr Watson and Peter Madden as Insp. Lestrade

Episodes:

1. The Illustrious Client
2. The Devil’s Foot
3. The Copper Beeches
4. The Red-Headed League
5. The Abbey Grange
6. The Man With The Twisted Lip
7. The Six Napoleons
8. The Beryl Coronet
9. The Bruce-Partington Plans
10. Charles Augustus Milverton
11. The Retired Colouman
12. The Disappearance Of Lady Frances Carfax

Notable Guest Stars: Peter Wyngarde, Patrick Troughton, Patrick Wymark, Nyree Dawn Porter, Anton Rogers, David Burke, Derek Francis, Maurice Denham and Joss Ackland

Douglas Wilmer and Nigel Stock as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson

The last of three series spun off Detective, this featured a highly acclaimed portrayal of Holmes by experienced stage and film actor Douglas Wilmer. It featured an array of excellent guest star performances, including Peter Wyngarde as Baron Gruner in The Illustrious Client and Patrick Troughton as Mortimer Tregennis in The Devil’s Foot. David Burke and Edward Hardwicke, who both appeared as Dr Watson opposite Jeremy Brett in the 1980s-90s also appeared.

After commissioning a second series the BBC contacted Wilmer to check his availability but he declined to return when he discovered the number of rehearsal days was to be cut. He was later critical of the series, saying it was fraught with difficulties, incompetence and the late arrival of scripts. Nigel Stock did return as Watson however.

Archive Status – All episodes exist on 16mm Film Telerecordings except the first half of Episode 5 and second half of Episode 9, which exists in full as a sound recording. The complete series has been released on DVD by the BFI with reconstructions of the missing film elements.

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May 15th to August 15th at 20.10 on BBC Television

Gil North – Cluff Series Two (duration 13 x 50 mins)

Produced by Terence Dudley

Written by Gil North

Starring: Leslie Sands as Sgt Caleb Cluff, Michael Bates as Insp. Mole, John Rolfe as Det. Const. Barker, Pauline Williams as Mrs Mole and John McKelvey as P. C. Bullock

Episodes:

1. The Chicken
2. The Brothers
3. The Cigarettes
4. The Thief
5. The Professional
6. The Fireraiser
7. The Strangers
8. The Convict
9. The Daughters
10. The Husband
11. The Pensioner
12. The Dictator
13. The Village Constable

Notable Guest Stars: Wilfred Pickles, Sylvia Coleridge, Ann Penfold, Jack Smethurst, Judy Geeson, Leonard Rossiter, Stephanie Bidmead, Yootha Joyce, Brian Peck, Judi Bloom and Philip Madoc

The first series of Cluff had proved successful enough for the BBC to commission another season. The number of episodes was increased from six to thirteen and the programme now occupied a prime-time slot on Saturday (episodes 1-6) and Sunday (episodes 7-13) evenings. Michael Bates, who found fame later in It Aint ‘Arf Hot Mum and Last Of The Summer Wine replaced Eric Barker as Cluff’s superior, Inspector Mole.

Cluff title card

You can view an episode here

Archive Status – All episodes exist on 16mm Film Telerecordings

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Detective – Series Two (duration 17 x 50 mins)

May 17th to September 1st 1968 at 21.05pm on BBC Television

Almost four years after it last appeared, Detective returned for a second series, this time featuring 17 episodes. No less than five detectives appeared for the second time, though none were portrayed by the same actor who had appeared four years earlier.

The series was produced by Verity Lambert, who had brought Doctor Who to the screen in late 1963 and had stayed with that show for the first two years. Anthea Browne-Wilkinson was script editor for the series.

Archive Status: Like the first series, six episodes are currently missing from the archives from the original seventeen. Full details are listed in the synopses below.

The titles for series two and three can be viewed here.

Episodes

1. Robert Carmichael – The Deadly Climate
2. Det. Chief Inspector Dover – Dover And The Poison Pen Letters
3. Inspector Rason – A Man And His Mother-In-Law
4. Inspector Appleby – Lesson In Anatomy
5. Nigel Strangeways – The Beast Must Die
6. Reggie Fortune – The German Song
7. Roger Sheringham – The Avenging Chance
8. Police Chief Fellows – Born Victim
9. Charles Russell – The Unquiet Sleep
10. Jasper Shrig – The High Adventure
11. Mr. Montague Cork – Cork On The Water
12. Albert Campion – The Case Of The Late Pig
13. Eve Gill – The Golden Dart
14. Det. Chief Inspector Dew – Crime Of Passion
15. Inspector Alleyne – Artists In Crime
16. Commissaire Bignon – Death On The Champs Elysees
17. Auguste Dupin – The Murders In The Rue Morgue

Detailed Episode Information

Ursula Curtiss – Robert Carmichael in The Deadly Climate

Adapted by George F. Kerr

Starring: Dudley Sutton as Robert Carmichael, James Bree as Henry Oliver, Lally Bowers as Maud Oliver, Georgina Hale as Caroline Emmett, Jean Kent as Miss Mayberry, Jean Marsh as Julie Oliver and Jack Woolgar as Sergeant Tregear.

Directed by John Frankau

Series Two debuted with an adaptation of a 1954 novel by American author Ursula Curtiss. The action of the novel was set in Massachusetts, but here it was transposed to the West Country.

Life in a quiet West Country village is not exciting as a rule, and Robert Carmichael, a local reporter, usually finds little to write about. But one night he hears that a strange, frightened girl has taken refuge in an outlying farmhouse claiming to have seen a murder.

Radio Times

Dudley Sutton (Robert Carmichael) and Jack Woolgar (Sgt Tregear)

Archive Status – Missing

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Joyce Porter – Det Chief Inspector Dover in Dover And The Poison Pen Letters

Adapted by James MacTaggart

Starring: Paul Dawkins as Det. Chief Inspector Dover, Tenniel Evans as Arthur Tompkins, Ballard Berkeley as Assistant Commissioner, Lee Chambers as Eleanor, Denise Coffey as Polly Gullimore, James Cosmo as Det. Sgt MacGregor and Lisa Daniely as Louise de Gascoigne.

Directed by Moira Armstrong

Joyce Porter’s Chief Inspector Dover books had only begun appearing in 1964, so this adaptation followed very quickly after his debut. Several other Dover stories were later adapted on BBC radio, with Kenneth Cranham starring as the detective.

Detective Chief Inspector Dover is middle-aged, fat, dyspeptic, lazy, and frankly unintelligent.
An outbreak of poison-pen letters in a remote village provides the Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard with a longed-for Opportunity of getting rid of him for a time. Dover’s efforts are, as usual, desultory, and their immediate effect is to produce one attempted and one successful suicide. Only Det.-Sgt. MacGregor, Dover’s assistant, suspects that the successful suicide is, in fact, a case of murder.

Radio Times

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Roy Vickers – Inspector Rason in A Man And His Mother-In-Law

Adapted by Hugh Leonard

Starring John Welsh as Inspector Rason, Barbara Couper as Mrs Blagrove, Donald Douglas as Arthur Penfold, Lyn Ashley as Madge, Norman Shelley as Sir James Kilkeith and John Wentworth as Chief Inspector Karslake.

Directed by David Proudfoot

A second appearance for Roy Vickers’ Inspector Rason, who oversees the Department Of Dead Ends. This time he was portrayed by John Welsh, famous for his appearance as John Forsyte in The Forsyte Saga the previous year . He also portrayed Mr Murbles in the Lord Peter Wimsey adaptation The Unpleasantness At The Bellona Club in 1973.

“Is this where you keep Stolen Property?” “Not quite, sir, Inspector Rason is in charge of our … um .. Dead Ends.” And in Scotland Yard Inspector Rason sits surrounded by clues which have led to ‘dead ends,’ and waits-waits for a criminal to make a move which will connect him with a clue. In the BIagrove case there seems to be no motive – the victim had no enemies. The only thing found at the scene of the crime that seems out of place is a book of love poems. Can Rason find a link between this and the murderer?

Radio Times

John Welsh as Inspector Rason (l)

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Michael Innes – Inspector Appleby in Lesson In Anatomy

Adapted by John Gould

Starring Ian Ogilvy as Inspector Appleby, John Glyn-Jones as Evans, Michael Gough as Holroyd, Ewan Hooper as Roper and Esmond Knight as Albert.

Directed by David Saire

Another reappearance from the first series, future star of Return Of The Saint Ian Ogilvy portrays Michael Innes’s sleuth Inspector Appleby.

The vulture quietly sat and eyed the assembly-and after the corpse grinned two minutes passed before the lights went out. In the darkness murder was committed. Inspector Appleby, called to the scene, finds himself involved in a world of academic back-biting subtlety – a world which he faces with assurance. But he needs more than assurance to unravel this macabre case. That a re-enactment of an eighteenth-century anatomy lecture should be a yearly event in a University is strange enough-that a murderer should choose this time and place for his crime is stranger still.

Radio Times

Archive Status – Missing

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H. C. Bailey – Reggie Fortune in The German Song

Adapted by Elwyn Jones

Starring: Denholm Elliott as Reggie Fortune, Felix Aylmer as Sir Henry Exton, Howard Marion-Crawford as Chief Constable Waldron, Jack May as Inspector Dubois and Ralph Michael as Sidney Lomas.

Directed by John Frankau

Celebrated character actor Denholm Elliot takes the lead role in the first and to-date only adaptation of one of H. C. Bailey’s Reggie Fortune stories. This story had first appeared in the 1929 collection Mr. Fortune Speaking.

Reggie Fortune, plump, good-humoured, and perhaps just a little idle, is helping his friend Sidney Lomas of Scotland Yard to clear up a possible unnatural death, when they are presented with a problem which both intrigues and baffles them. It is not a murder but a robbery. Priceless and irreplaceable antique jewellery has been stolen from the house of Sir Henry Exon and there seems to be no trace of its whereabouts. Reggie tears himself away from his favourite pursuits of eating and dozing long enough to astound the professional police investigators by solving the crime. But the vital clue upon which his deduction is based is given to him by his wife, Joan.

Radio Times

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Nicholas Blake – Nigel Strangeways in The Beast Must Die

Adapted by Pip and Jane Baker

Starring: Bernard Horsfell as Nigel Strangeways, Francis Matthews as George Rattery, Richard Hurndall as General Shrivenham, Catherine Lacey as Mrs Rattery and Yvonne Gilan as Georgia Strangeways.

Directed by Tina Wakerell

Cecil Day Lewis’s Nigel Strangeways, previously portrayed by Glyn Houston, makes a second appearance, this time with Bernard Horsfall in the leading role. Horsfall had previously starred as Albert Campion in two series, each of six episodes, which were broadcast in 1959-60.

The Poet Laureate, C. Day Lewis, is well known to many enthusiasts of detective fiction as Nicholas Blake -an unusual combination of roles. He has created the character of Nigel Strangeways, the private detective featured in this week’s play. In this story, Nigel Strangeways is called in to help solve a strange case. An attempt has been made on a man’s life. This attempt has been foiled and the would-be murderer has been revealed. But later the same day the intended victim dies. This death is no accident-nor is it suicide. Clearly more than one person feels that the Beast must die.

Radio Times

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Anthony Berkeley – Roger Sheringham in The Avenging Chance

Adapted by John Gould

Starring: John Carson as Roger Sheringham, Tony Steedman as Sir William Anstruther, Alan Cuthbertson as Rupert Bryce, John Franklin-Robbins as Graham Beresford, Jennifer Jayne as Delilah Bryce and Marion Spencer as Lady Anstruther.

Directed by Moira Armstrong

John Carson, who was a familiar face on TV at this time, stars in the only adaptation thus far of an Anthony Berkeley Roger Sheringham story, though his Francis Iles stories have been adapted. The original short story was later expanded by Berkeley into the novel The Poisoned Chocolates Case.

This play is set in the West End of London in the nineteen-thirties. It appears that there are a large number of people who would be glad to see Sir William Anstruther dead. The question is who? Roger Sheringham is determined to find out. Unhappily he has hardly started his investigations when a tragedy, in which an innocent woman dies, takes place.

Radio Times

John Carson as Roger Sheringham

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Hillary Waugh – Police Chief Fellows in Born Victim

Adapted by William Emms

Starring: Lee Montagu as Police Chief Fellows, Sheila Hancock as Mrs Markle, T. P. McKenna as Detective Wilks, Christopher Benjamin as Ralph Demartino, John Abineri as Mr Jarold and Bernard Hepton as Jeremiah Batson.

Directed by Alan Bridges

American author Hillary Waugh’s 1962 novel was adapted here, with Lee Montagu as Police Chief Fellows. Here the action was not relocated to Britain, as it had been for the Ursula Curtiss episode.

Bobbie Markle, a thirteen-year-old girl, disappears from her home one Saturday morning, while her mother is out at work. The night before she had attended her first formal dance. The local police chief, Fellows, is called in and begins the routine of finding the girl. What starts as a straightforward search develops in a more sinister way and the hunt for clues involves a number of people who at first seem to have no connection with the missing girl or her mother. The setting of this play is the mid-west of America.

Radio Times

Archive Status – Missing

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William Haggard – Charles Russell in The Unquiet Sleep

Adapted by Hugo Charteris

Starring: Roland Culver as Charles Russell, Bernard Brown as Henry Leggatt, Richard Caldicott as Robert Seneschal and Sarah Lawson as Rachel Borrowdaile.

Directed by Claude Whatham

William Haggard’s Charles Russell, who works for the fictional Security Executive, investigates a new tranquilizer which may have serious side-effects in this story by an author celebrated for his spy thrillers.

Sarah Lawson and Roland Culver

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Jeffery Farnol – Jasper Shrig in The High Adventure

Adapted by Hugh Whitemore

Starring: Colin Blakeley as Jasper Shrig, Isabel Black as Olivia Revell, Simon Oates as Terence O’Leary, Larry Aubrey as Lord Julian Midmarsh and Otis E. Mason as Gaston de Ravnac.

Directed by William Slater

A second outing for Jeffery Farnol’s Jasper Shrig, Bow Street Runner and thief-taker. Patrick Troughton, who played Shrig in series one, was by now well established as the second Doctor Who, so Colin Blakeley took over the starring role.

Jeremy Veryan, heir to the estates of Veryan, leaves his guardian’s house and goes in search of ‘The High Adventure.’ Mysteriously he is struck down by an unknown assailant. Jasper Shrig, a Bow Street Runner, dedicated to the pursuit of ‘Windictiveness’ in all its manifestations, hears of this assault and comes to his assistance. Together they set out to track down not only the threat hanging over Jeremy but also the shadow that darkens his childhood-the mystery of his parents’ death.
In this romantic Regency adventure, the part of Jasper Shrig is played by Colin Blakely, of the National Theatre Company.

Radio Times

The High Adventure

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Macdonald Hastings – Mr Montague Cork in Cork On The Water

Adapted by Elwyn Jones

Starring: Colin Douglas as Montague Cork, Martin Jarvis as Robert Macrae, Anette Andre as Anna Pryde, Jacqui Chan as Miss Ree and Timothy Bateson as Stage Doorkeeper.

Directed by Tony Wickert

An adaptation of Macdonald Hasting’s debut mystery from 1952 which featured his insurance investigator Montague Cork, who was based on a real man, Claude Wilson of the Cornhill Insurance Company.

Colin Douglas (Cork) and Martin Jarvis (Macrae)

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Margery Allingham – Albert Campion in The Case Of The Late Pig

Adapted by Frank Moore

Starring: Brian Smith as Albert Campion, George Sewell as Lugg, James Beck as Bathwick, Geoffrey Bayldon as Kingston, Charles Lloyd Pack as Hayhoe and Angela Crow as Effie Rawlinson.

Directed by Bill Hays

The BBC had already adapted two novels by Margery Allingham, Dancers In Mourning (1959) and Death Of A Ghost (1960). Here her short novel The Case Of The Late Pig provided the basis for a story featuring future Catweazle star Geoffrey Bayldon and George Sewell of UFO and Special Branch.

Albert Campion went to school with “Pig” Peters, and hated him. When he hears that Pig has died, he attends the funeral – but Pig appears to have died twice.

Brian Smith (Campion) and George Sewell (Lugg)

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Selwyn Jepson – Eve Gill in The Golden Dart

Adapted by Selwyn Jepson

Starring: Penelope Horner as Eve Gill, John Stride as James Belsin, John Laurie as Commander Gill, Andrew Faulds as Gonzalez and Frank Middlemass as Billy Bull.

Directed by James Cellan-Jones

Eve Gill, a young sleuth who finds herself frequently dealing with problems caused by her liquor-smuggling father, investigates a suspicious death in this, an adaptation of the second book in Selwyn Jepson’s series. It was Gill’s second appearance, having been previously portrayed by Jane Merrow in series one.

Eve Gill hears that her neighbour Louise Fremton has committed suicide but everything tell her it’s murder. Investigating she discovers the murderer has close business ties with her father.

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Colin Morris – Detective Chief Inspector Dew in Crime Of Passion

Starring: Glynn Edwards as Detective Chief Inspector Dew, Bernard Hepton as Dr. Hawley Crippen, Marion Diamond as Ether Le Neve, Paulin Delany as Belle Elmore and Anne Carroll as Clara Martinelli.

Directed by Douglas Camfield

In a departure from the rest of the series, this episode features an original story based on the infamous Crippen trial, with Glynn Edwards appearing as real police detective Inspector Dew and Bernard Hepton as the murderous doctor.

The story of Dr. Crippen has the fascination of real-life drama which far exceeds in macabre fantasy much fictional crime writing. Colin Morris, who is well known for his documentary dramas and his plays, has given here a study of Crippen and his crime which reveals no new facts, but a great deal of the emotional background to the murder of Belle Elmore.
There is an intense drama provided by the parts that chance and coincidence play in the story and in the steps that lead Dew, the detective, firstly to suspicion of murder and eventually to the certainty of the crime and the arrest of the fugitive doctor.

Radio Times

Archive Status – Missing

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Ngaio Marsh – Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Allyen in Artists In Crime

Adapted by Gorge F. Kerr

Starring: Michael Allinson as Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, Tracy Reed as Agatha Troy, Clifford Cox as Detective Inspector Fox, Justine Lloyd as Valmal Seacliff, John Laurimore as Detective Sergeant Bailey and John Stratton as Cedric Malmsley.

Directed by Roger Jenkins

Michael Allinson takes over the role of Ngaio Marsh’s Roderick Alleyn in his second appearance, which introduced his love interest Agatha Troy. Alleyn investigates the murder of an artists’ model.

Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn and his assistant, Inspector Fox, are known to millions of readers of Ngaio Marsh’s detective novels. Now they are introduced to viewers in a macabre murder case set in a country house. Not a conventional country house, since it is owned by the painter Agatha Troy, and she has gathered there a varied collection of artists. The relationships within this group of temperamental people are extremely involved and there are many bitter jealousies and rivalries. The unravelling of the case is made doubly difficult by this ‘labyrinth of untidy emotions.’

Radio Times

Michael Allinson as Roderick Alleyn

Archive Status – Missing

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Francis Didelot – Commissaire Bignon in Death On The Champs Elysees

Adapted by Derek Ingrey

Starring: Derek Godfrey as Commissaire Bignon, Frederick Jaeger as Mischa Cuprin, George A. Cooper as Ugo Ahrenfeldt, Elizabeth Shepherd as Jennifer Davis and Kenneth Farrington as Lunlet.

Directed by Anthea Browne-Wilkinson

No hotel likes to feel it is the scene of a crime. To a hotel of the irreproachable respectability of the Henri IV in Paris, the effect of such an event on the management is catastrophic. Their wealthy and distinguished guests cannot be disturbed by the vulgar clamour of police investigation. Surely the business man found dead in his hotel room must have died accidentally. Commissaire Bignon thinks otherwise. Undoubtedly this is murder and he Intends to pursue his investigations no matter how inconvenient his pressure and his questions may be. And his questions reveal many strange facts about the guests at this luxurious hotel.

Radio Times

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Edgar Allan Poe – Chevalier Auguste Dupin in The Murders In The Rue Morgue

Adapted by James MacTaggart

Starring: Edward Woodward as Auguste Dupin, Charles Kay as Edgar Allan Poe, Christopher Benjamin as Rodier, Geoffrey Rose as Prefect and Beatrice Greeke as Madame Douterc.

Directed by James Cellen-Jones

Often described as the first modern detective story, the second series concluded with this adaptation of Poe’s classic tale, with Charles Kay portraying the author.

Night is the time for terror, that walks the streets and invades the most closely guarded privacy. Who could have penetrated into the locked and shuttered house in the Rue Morgue? What superhuman agency could have committed such atrocities on the innocent, elderly victims? And will the terror walk again-will the horror be repeated? Dupin and his friend Poe test their theories of deductive reasoning and discover the reality behind the seemingly impossible events. Paris in 1841 provides the setting for this, the last in the series of Detective, and the first detective story ever written.

Radio Times

Charles Kay (Poe) and Edward Woodward (Dupin)

Archive Status – Missing

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Detective – Series Three (duration 10 x 50 mins)

September 7th to November 9th 1969 at 19.25 on BBC Television

The third series appeared just over a year after the second. Once again Verity Lambert acted as producer, with Anthea Browne-Wilkinson as script editor.

Two detectives reappeared from the previous series (Police Chief Fellows and Commissaire Bignon) and one from the first (Sir Henry Merrivale), with Lee Montague as Fellows the only actor to portray the same character twice in the series.

Archive Status: Oddly, given its later transmission, only one episode of the original ten from the third series currently exists in the archive. This may be down to lack of overseas sales. Full details are listed in the synopses below.

Episodes

1. Police Chief Fellows – Prisoner’s Plea
2. Alan Grant – The Singing Sands
3. Sir Luke Frinsby – The Public School Murder
4. Miss Pye – Put Out The Light
5. Ruth Kelstern – The Tea-Leaf
6. Inspector Ghote – Hunt The Peacock
7. Ian Firth and John Smith – Elimination Round
8. Sir Henry Merrivale – And So To Murder
9. Commissaire Bignon – The Poisoners
10. William Guppy – Mr. Guppy’s Tale

Detailed Episode Information

Hillary Waugh – Police Chief Fellows in Prisoner’s Plea

Adapted by William Emms

Starring: Lee Montagu as Police Chief Fellows, Philip Madoc as Jackson, Patrick Westwood as McCarthy, Patricia English as Mrs Baxter, Joe Melia as Jones and Warren Stanhope as Mills.

Directed by Jonathan Alwyn

Lee Montagu returns as Hillary Waugh’s Police Chief detective in an adaptation of the seventh book in the series.

The date for Ernest Jackson’s execution has been set. In 17 days he will go to the chair for the murder of his wife – brutally killed three years earlier. In despair he appeals to Police Chief Fellows; the evidence which led to his conviction is purely circumstantial; no motive has been proved. Disturbed at the possibility of a miscarriage of justice, Fellows spends his vacation pursuing the now cold trail. Was some vital clue overlooked? Did some other person have a motive for the killing? The days pass, and gradually Fellows begins to uncover the truth.

Radio Times

Lee Montague as Fellows

Archive Status – Exists as 16mm Film Telerecording

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Josephine Tey – Alan Grant in The Singing Sands

Adapted by James MacTaggart

Starring: John Carson as Alan Grant, Gordon Jackson as Tommy Rankin, Phyllida Law as Laura Rankin, Windsor Davies as Det. Sgt Williams, Kevin Stoney as Heron Lloyd and Joseph Grieg as ‘Old Yoghurt’

Directed by Moira Armstrong

John Carson, who portrayed Roger Sheringham in series two, here returns as Josephine Tey’s Alan Grant in an adaptation of her final novel.

The night train to Scotland roars on its way bearing two passengers whose destinies, unknown to them, are to become deeply involved.

Radio Times

Archive Status – Missing

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R. C. Woodthorpe – Sir Luke Frinsby in The Public School Murder

Adapted by Roy Clarke

Starring: Cyril Luckham as Sir Luke Frinsby, John Nettleton as Smith, Ray Smith as Borden, Terence Alexander as Stephenson, Basil Moss as Grange, Anthony Dawes as Starky and Brian Spink as Spencer.

Directed by Jonathan Alwyn

R. C. Woodthorpe’s first novel received critical approval and, though he wrote seven more detective novels, he is unfortunately largely forgotten today, though I have reviewed him elsewhere on this blog.

The murder of the headmaster of a famous public school causes a great scandal; Sir Luke Frinsby, a Governor, and Mr. Smith, the Senior History Master, succeed in solving the crime when the police have failed.

Radio Times

Archive Status – Missing

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Ethel Lina White – Miss Pye in Put Out The Light

Adapted by John Gould

Starring: Angela Baddeley as Miss Pye, Rachel Kempson as Anthea Vine, Michael Jayston as Francis Ford, Colin Jeavons as Dr Glyn Lawrence, Kenneth Fortescue as Charles Ford, Pauline Munroe as Iris Pomeroy and Robin Wentworth as Supt Pye.

Directed by Ben Rea

Enjoying a renaissance at the moment, largely due to the reprinting of several of her books in the British Library Crime Classics imprint, this is the only TV adaptation of one of White’s works, though both The Lady Vanishes and The Spiral Staircase have both been made into films.

Jamaica Court is the home of Anthea Vine, rich, autocratic and powerful. Her tyranny embraces not only her adopted family but also her servants and business rivals. The pleasure she derives from her power is mixed with fears that haunt her day and night. For she is aware that many hate her and many wish her dead. She tries to dismiss these fears as groundless – raised in her imagination by the emotional tensions ever present in the house. Miss Pye sees the reality of the dangers that surround the victim and tries to warn her of them.

Radio Times

Archive Status – Missing

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Edgar Jepson and Robert Eustace – Ruth Kelstern in The Tea-Leaf

Adapted by Noel Robinson

Starring: Hannah Gordon as Ruth Kelstern, Grant Taylor as Arthur Kelstern, Glyn Owen as Hugh Willoughton, Hugh Cross as Det. Insp. Brackett, Bert Brownbill as Rivers and Neil Stacy as John MacKenzie.

Directed by Peter Moffatt

One of the best early female detectives, along with Catherine Pirkis’ Loveday Brooke, Ruth Kelstern investigates the murder of her father, with her ex-fiance the prime suspect.

In the steamy heat of a fashionable Turkish baths, emotions can become heightened and lead to a fantastic and mysterious death.

Archive Status – Missing

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H. R. F. Keating – Inspector Ghote in Hunt The Peacock

Adapted by Hugh Leonard

Starring: Zia Mohyeddin as Inspector Ghote, Marne Maitland as Vidur Datta, Petra Markham as Renee, Sally Geeson as Patsy, Geoffrey Palmer as Chief Supt Smeed, Brigit Forsyth as WPC Mackintosh and Graham Rigby as Morgan.

Directed by Ben Rea

The first appearance for H. R. F. Keating’s Bombay detective, here played by Pakistani-British actor Zia Mohyeddin. A Ghote story also appeared as the first episode of the Thames TV play series Storyboard in 1983.

Inspector Ghote visits London and finds that life in England is not quite as he had imagined it.

Radio Times

Archive Status – Missing

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Ludovic Peters – Ian Firth and John Smith in Elimination Round

Written by Ludovic Peters

Starring: David Buck as Ian Firth, Meredith Edwards as John Smith, Alethea Charlton as Harriet Ward, Howard Lang as Packer, John Harvey as Spencer, Ania Marson as Pamela Bryce and Ian Dewar as Ron.

Directed by Alan Gibson

German-born author Peters, whose real name was Peter Ludovic Brent, produced eleven mysteries between 1960 and 1970, mostly featuring Ian Firth. This is an adaptation of his novel Two Sets To Murder.

A race against time as Ian Firth and John Smith try to find the reasons behind the apparently motiveless murder of a British Wimbledon semi-finalist.

Radio Times

Meredith Edwards as John Smith

Archive Status – Missing

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John Dickson Carr – Sir Henry Merrivale in And So To Murder

Adapted by Paul Wheeler

Starring: Martin Wyldeck as Sir Henry Merrivale, William Russell as Bill Cartwright, Stephanie Bidmead as Tilly Parsons, John Bailey as Howard Fisk, Suzanne Neve as Monica Stanton and Jean Harvey as Frances Fleur.

Directed by Douglas Camfield

Sir Henry Merrivale appears for the second time, in this case portrayed by Martin Wyldeck.

In the summer of 1939 a film company is engaged in making a film about ‘Spies at Sea.’ But their efforts are bedevilled by a mysterious chain of ‘accidents’ which threaten to disrupt the whole project. Is this sabotage? The whole company becomes nervous and on edge. Into this tense atmosphere comes Monica Stanton, a young novelist engaged to work on another film scenario. Suddenly the ‘accidents’ take on a new and more personal character and lives are endangered. The great Sir Henry Merrivale, Head of Security Service, who is investigating the sabotage attempts, turns his attention to the new menace.

Radio Times

Archive Status – Missing

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Francis Didelot – Commissaire Bignon in The Poisoners

Adapted by Derek Ingrey

Starring: Edward Woodward as Commissaire Bignon, Peter Copley as Stephen Huitelin, Felicity Gibson as Diane Dangeville, Peter Birrel as Luniot, Anne Kristen as Elise and John Stratton as Professor Dangeville.

Directed by Anthea Browne-Wilkinson

Edward Woodward returns, this time taking over the role of Francis Didelot’s Commissaire Bignon for the French author’s second appearance.

Always unable to resist an appeal from a beautiful woman, Bignon becomes intrigued by the curious behaviour of a girl who first runs to him for help and then refuses to tell him anything about her troubles. Ignoring his superior officer’s advice to leave the matter alone, he begins to make a few tentative enquiries and suddenly finds himself involved in a highly complex case. He discovers the secrets of the Dangeville family; their tangled emotions and the strange pattern of the life they live behind a façade of aristocratic and academic respectability.

Radio Times

Archive Status – Missing

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Charles Dickens – William Guppy in Mr Guppy’s Tale

Adapted by Hugh Whitemore

Starring: Bill Fraser as William Guppy, Geoffrey Rose as Rev Clarence Purefoy, Esmond Knight as Ernest Guppy, Sheila Burrell as Ethel Guppy, Charles Adey-Grey as William Knottage and Josie Bradley as Mildred Knottage.

Directed by James MacTaggart

Derived loosely from Bleak House, this features Dickens’ ambitious young clerk in an original story created for the series.

‘A man with an extraordinary story to tell, and a most singular way of telling it,’ entertains the parish of Brampton Cotterell.

Radio Times

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The 1969 series was the final one and it is worth noting that it was not made in colour, which had started in 1967 on BBC2 but did not launch on BBC1 until two weeks after the last episode of Detective aired.

The BBC continued to mine the Golden Age of detective fiction, with the next major series, Dorothy L. Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey, starting in 1972. The next series of interest to lovers of early detective stories is however The Rivals Of Sherlock Holmes, which ran for 26 episodes on Thames TV from 1971-1973. All episodes of both series exist and have been released on DVD.

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R E Faust

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If anyone has any corrections, amendments or additions to suggest please contact me or leave a comment and I will update the article where required.

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With thanks to the BBC Genome project, the TVRDB website, TV Brain, Kaleidoscope and Television Heaven for research information

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